The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced in 2015 that two separate cybersecurity incidents were attributed to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The incidents compromised the Social Security numbers, birthdates and addresses of approximately 21.5 million Americans.
As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues its purge of federal programs, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, cautions the OPM in a letter against prematurely eliminating government contracts that protect millions of federal employees whose personal information was compromised in the massive data breaches.
“The federal workforce was dangerously exposed by the 2015 OPM breach, and millions of impacted individuals will continue to be at risk because of the breach, likely for the remainder of their lives. In addition to Social Security numbers, birthdates and addresses, there were also 1.1 million sets of fingerprints and detailed financial and health records exposed — some of the most valuable information today on the dark web,” Warner wrote.
In the immediate aftermath of the breach, Warner introduced legislation to protect federal workers affected by the attacks and eventually secured OPM-contracted identity protection services for individuals impacted. However, despite previous efforts by the Trump Administration to protect federal workers whose data was compromised, DOGE has signaled that the protections may be in jeopardy.
“Given the recent personnel cuts to OPM and Elon Musk’s imminent departure from the Trump Administration, I am deeply concerned that OPM is planning to curtail identity theft monitoring for millions of public servants and their families whose information was compromised in 2015. I urge you to ensure that identity theft protection services for the impacted individuals from the 2015 OPM breach continue, as required by law,” Warner wrote.
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Rebecca Barnabi
